Distinguish your product from alternatives. It should be obvious why they should pitch yours and not someone else’s.

Be available as an expert to support the sale. The partner should be able to rely on you to provide specialized expertise, understand the prospect’s business, and speak their language.

Make it easy to sell your product. The partner wants to know that your solution can help them sell more of their own product. Don’t get in the way of that goal.

Think about it. If one of the partner’s sales executives is working with a prospect, their number one goal is to win the account. If they need to reach into the portfolio of thousands of partners’ solutions to help them win, you want to be sure they reach for your solution, not somebody else’s.

They should have full confidence that by bringing you into the opportunity, they’ll have a much better chance of winning the business.

Don’t rely on “paper partnerships”

I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade here. Partnerships do have the potential to be helpful to smaller companies.

But recognize that a signed partnership agreement doesn’t work all by itself. The signatures and the press announcement are really just the start of the process.

To be effective, companies need to actively market themselves to the partner. Along with other prospects, the partners are another important target audience that needs care and attention.

SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors

SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors helps software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies acquire and retain customers. We have worked with SaaS companies to develop a compelling value proposition and messaging, a cost-effective customer acquisition plan, and consistent marketing materials. Our clients include younger firms that need a solid marketing foundation and more established firms that need to enhance their existing customer acquisition process.

Where SaaS Marketing Goes Wrong: Common Flaws and Recommendations to Fix Them